


Snowflakes

by RomeoandAntoinette



Category: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Dorks in Love, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Making Out, Pillow Talk, Post-Endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 16:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17186510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RomeoandAntoinette/pseuds/RomeoandAntoinette
Summary: It's the first snowfall in the fully-restored kingdom of Renais. The infamous King of Restoration, Ephraim, absolutely detests everything about the cold. Thankfully, L'Arachel poses a suggestion to her husband to help him cope. [Ephraim/L'Arachel] [Fluff]





	Snowflakes

A blast of cold air. The sound of rushing wind. The pitter-patter of distance footsteps beyond his bedroom door.

Ephraim rolled over in his bed shift away from sights and sounds that had lured him away from the catacombs of sleep in the first place. Due to the cold temperatures that raged outside the castle, the man was in no mood to awaken earlier than necessary. Judging from the darkness outside and the pinkish hue that was only starting to deepen in a crescent on the horizon, he knew he had at least a few more moments before he had to face the chilling wake of day.

He turned his body beneath the layers of blankets to try and shift further away from the winter air that was attempting to—and partially succeeding at—sneaking through the cracks in his bedroom window.

Mere hours before, the first snowfall of the season had begun coating the kingdom of Renais in a blanket of thick frost…

…And Ephraim couldn’t have hated it more.

The prince-turned-King of Restoration was an athletic man who enjoyed copious hours of training and being outdoors. He wasn’t as social as his twin Eirika, but he still enjoyed getting out and stretching his legs with hands-on activities that kept his body and mind active. Whether that meant initiating some sparring bouts with his retainers or helping some of the villagers patch up their homes and barns to fend of the cold, it hardly mattered to him. The man would have given anything to get out and stay active.

The cold slowed him down. The stark white landscape, always paired with an inevitable wintry chill, depressed him. Everything looked lifelessly pale when the cloudy skies of winter reflected only dim, hazy light off everything. The world lost its shine. 

The declining temperature also always seemed to infiltrate past the layers of armor and thick padding to drag its icy fingers over his goose prickled skin. The chilling sensation would seep right into his bones and reduce him to a mass of shivers and curses. Ephraim was absolutely useless when he was cold. His allies, including his twin sister, knew the fact very well.

The king desperately wished he had some amount of magical talent, like some of his confidants that had fought at his side during the war. If Artur had been nearby, he would have instantly summoned him to use whatever fire magic he could to torch all the snow away with a sweeping wall of fire.

Then again, that probably wasn’t a bright idea. Artur would have most definitely declined anyway, but the vision of all the snow instantly evaporating into a heavy puff and being whisked away by a breeze was a thought that made him feel very warm and fuzzy.

The king felt somewhat guilty for griping so much about the cold, even if most of his sentiments were only kept to himself. It wasn’t like him and his entire army hadn’t endured freezing hardships before.

The war that had forced him and Eirika to mobile their forces to save their kingdom usually under the cover of treetops. Sometimes they used tents or tarps, but that was only if they were momentously lucky.

The point was, he’d survived worse before. Mere months before, they’d had to huddle for warmth in shallow caves or build unsteady fires atop drippy foliage on the soaked forest floors to receive any relief. Some nights, he still had nightmares about how biting the cold temperatures had been.

Now, evading the cold was much less of an everyday issue. The kingdom of Renais was restored to the point where all the decimated houses had been repaired and patched up following the destructive raids. The castle where Ephraim resided was no exception.

Unlike when they’d set up camps during the warm, he now had an entire bedroom to himself.

Well, _almost_ to himself.

Ephraim rolled laid his eyes on the blonde woman lying next to him. She was dressed in layers of oyster-shell flannel. Like him, she also had an immense distaste for chilly temperatures. Her greenish-blonde hair was mussed and splayed across the pillow with shameless dishevelment the infamously radiant L’Arachel would have never shown to anyone else. Nobody except Ephraim.

The feeling of Ephraim’s eyes lingering on her relaxed visage must have signaled some primal instinct deep inside to awaken from her slumber. When pale lashes drew apart and gave way to golden orbs, she smiled briefly up at the ceiling before knowingly turning her head to meet his sultry gaze.

“Good morning,” Ephraim drawled. He leisurely moved his hand up one of her bare arms until he was palming her shoulder. Her skin was warm to the touch, and he adored it.

“Good morning yourself,” she laughed lightly, rolling on her back so she could stretch her arms high over her head. She pursed her lips to suppress a loud yawn. “Goodness, I must have slept terribly late if even you’re awake before me.”

He smirked at her words. While they would have sounded harsh to anyone else, there was no bite behind them. He’d learned first-hand how to distinguish her prideful bluffing from her actual bouts of annoyance or anger.

“I’m afraid not,” he husked sleepily. “It’s still before dawn.”

This time, Ephraim’s words elicited a stronger reaction. Not believing him, she rose up from the bed to glimpse the sky from their bedside window. Sure enough, the dark hues and still-twinkling stares overhead where a testament to Ephraim’s swords.

With a loud sigh, she flopped her body back on the bed.

“Oh, my,” she exhaled, her voice still bleary from having just woken up. “Well, that’s fine. I was thinking of getting an early start today, but now that I’m awake…all I want to do is go back to sleep.”

Ephraim nodded in solidarity. “Did you also see that it’s… _snowing_ outside?”

The word practically dripped with venom.

The obvious revulsion her husband showed for the mere word, let alone the weather phenomenon itself, drew a musical laugh from her lips.

“I did, my dear husband,” she laughed, stretching her arms until they naturally slackened. Her hands fell neatly upon her stomach. “No need to say another word. I can tell you’re absolutely thrilled.”

“Very funny,” he said, voice crackling with dryness. Then, a moment later, he huffed in resignation and started the torturous process of peeling his sleepy body from the mattress. “I suppose I should get up and try to get some start on the day, but—”

“Oh, my dear Ephraim. We both know that isn’t what you want.”

The sudden interruption brought his ramblings to a halt. He threw her a half-curious, and half-delighted. “Oh, really? Tell me what I want then, my dear L’Arachel.”

Mirroring her husband, she rolled onto her side in order to lean on her elbow for support. The movement also allowed her to maintain direct eye-contact with her husband.

“You can’t lie to me,” she responded with a laugh. “You aren’t even out of bed yet and you already have cabin fever, right? You’d rather just doze the day away than try to do anything because, even if you start a project, you know you’ll be so miserable that you won’t be able to finish it. _That_ will drive you even more crazy than just staying in the castle all day.”

Ephraim’s nose wrinkled at her strikingly accurate statement.

“You don’t have to be so blunt,” he said, the words tumbling from his lips like heavy boulders. Like always, her precise method of deduction had pinned him perfect.

The mock-guilt he showed on his face must have struck a chord with her. Less than a moment passed before she leaned forward to press one of her warm palms against his cheek. Almost instantly, Ephraim was drawn to the caress and melted in against her hand like putty.

“Darling, look at who you’re talking to,” she offered softly. “Or, look in a mirror. The effect is the same. Neither of us is particularly good at withholding the blunt truth from others. When it comes to being straightforward and avoiding unnecessary frivolities, I’m afraid you and I are even more of a perfect match for each other.”

Ephraim’s eyes suddenly flitted up from her hand and shot her a challenging stare. He smirked widely and placed a teasing kiss on the pulse beating languidly in her wrist.

“…Are you seriously trying to insist that you do not enjoy frivolities?” Ephraim asked in immense disbelief. “Really? Aren’t you the ever-so-radiant, and self-proclaimed, ‘Beautiful princess of peerless beauty?’”

She gave him a side-eye look that was sharper than the blade of a Killing Edge.

“My dear, you should listen more keenly,” she teased, the lilt in her voice only enhancing as she laid her eyes on her husband’s smirk. “I said ‘frivolities.’ Not ‘facts.’ Or, are you going to argue with me?”

This time, Ephraim was prepared.

 “I wouldn’t dare,” he returned with a suave smile. “Why argue with you over something that’s perfectly true?”

Seeing her cheeks flush lightly at his playful delivery only widened the enchanted grin on her face.

“S...See?” she said, feigning casualness as she tucked her hands behind her head and leaned back. She didn’t make a single movement to attempt to rise from their shared divan. “Both of us are perfectly adept at accepting the truth. You’re as wise as you are dashing, husband. Now, come here. The bed is much too cold without you and the covers.”

He pursed his lips in a failed attempt to stifle a loud laugh at her unusually graceless change of subject. The result was a loud, sputtering sound that preceded his words. “L’Arachel, you hardly need to convince me to climb back into bed with you.”

“…Then what in the _world_ have we been discussing this entire time?” she asked, voice rising in volume as he threw her hands toward the ceiling in overdramatic exasperation.

She puffed a cheek at him, he laughed in return.

“Alright,” Ephraim conceded from their literal tête-à-tête with a large sigh. The broad expanse of his chest heave beneath the fine material of his sleep shirt. “You’ve convinced me to come back to bed.”

“To nobody’s surprise,” she said as her teeth bit into her bottom lip from excitement.

Ephraim slid his weight off his elbow slowly so he could shift the weight of his body back onto the mattress. As he laid back, he snaked one of his war-hardened arms around L'Arachel's waist to roll their bodies together. The golden-eyes woman went willingly into his embrace, allowing him to cradle him close to his heart. Their bodies, both naturally warm, created heated friction between them that suddenly made their cozy sleepwear seem incredibly stifling.

Golden eyes met aquamarine ones briefly, almost shyly, before they slowly began to angle their heads. The couple didn't need to exchange a single word as they leaned toward each other and slid their jaws together slowly, sealing their mouths together in a close kiss that made the building heat between their molded bodies rise to a searing crescendo.

Moaning softly against the searing touch, L’Arachel unhinged her arms from their place on the bed and lifted them to sling them loosely around Ephraim's shoulders. The fine linen of his sleep shirt began to shift and ride upward from her caress. 

Mouths still pressed together, Ephraim rolled over L’Arachel’s body until his wider frame covered hers, all while keeping one arm snugly wound around her soft stomach. When he felt her fingers slowly drift to clench fistfuls of his hair, his heart thrummed with elation. The tight embrace kept their chests and stomachs flush as both settled back into the nest of satin and fleece covers.

With his weight bearing down on her, L’Arachel slowly parted her legs to allow one of her thighs the pleasure of softly grazing the sliver of exposed skin above his waistband. She opened her body to him more and more, until their hips could graze rhythmically and their legs were tangled with the bedsheets.

At the feeling of her bare flesh against his, he bit into her bottom lip softly. When she wept his name in longing, he wasted no time in yanking the remaining covers over their heads and separating the two of them from the rest of the world.

Perhaps the snow wasn’t as bad as he thought.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll confess, ["Snowflakes"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2GdldWBpVw) from Persona 4 was playing in my head as I wrote this. I’ve been listening to it for 10 years and I’m still not sick of it. I don’t think it’s an obvious choice of inspiration for this couple, but it fits them remarkably well. At least, in my opinion.  
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> Thank you guys so much for reading! I hope you have a wonderful rest of the year! I’ll be back with more…Laphraim? Ephrechel? Do these two have a pairing name? If not, there should be one.  
> See you next year! Thank you for reading! <3


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